meNet Learning Outcomes in Music Teacher Training

Introduction

In this area of the meNet website you can find „meNet Learning Outcomes in Music Teacher Training“. They are to be understood as a contribution to the debate on the question of how to teach music in the school, and which competencies future music teachers should possess. This document also helps as a tool to review and develop the curriculum. All initiatives in European teacher training institutions, which aim to reform or develop of the educational structures and programmes for Music, should take account of these “meNet Learning Outcomes”. The development of education in Europe is shaped by factors such as new requirements of knowledge and skills, lifelong learning, globalisation and comparability, and the intention of the submitted document is to contribute to this development.

Given that you will not find a common denominator for music teacher training amongst the European countries or in the various types of educational institutions, and that very different conceptions of music education exist in the different school systems, the presentation of Europe-wide learning outcomes seems to be rather adventurous. However these generally and fundamentally formulated statements, across all such differences, can have a stimulating and challenging impact on the varied ways in which the content and structures of teacher training are realised. In the following you will find:

·      a Preamble,

·      the “meNet Learning Outcomes” as such in form of brief statements, divided into three areas: musical and pedagogical, general pedagogical and generic knowledge and skills,

·      explanations of the “meNet Learning Outcomes” document,

·      advice on how to use this document, as well as

·      a list of reference documents.

In the Explanatory Text firstly the education policy context is discussed, i.e. the background on which the development of the “meNet Learning Outcomes”  has been undertaken. This background reflects the change in higher education policy in Europe in the context of Lisbon and the Bologna process. It also makes reference to the debate on fundamental questions of teaching and learning as well as the role of music in this context.

The most important basic documents, such as the “European Qualification Framework for Lifelong Learning “EQF” are mentioned, and it is explained how these have had an impact on formulating the “meNet Learning Outcomes in Music Teacher Training”.

In addition, there is a description of the context in which it has been possible to draw up such a document, and of its integration into the EU networking project "music education Network (meNet)”.

The sections: “Level and structure of formulation” and “The content of the Learning Outcomes” describe from which definition of “Learning Outcomes” the statements emerge, what is meant by “knowledge and skills”, what is, in the perspective of education in schools, to be understood by “musical expertise” etc.

Finally some ideas are given on how to use these “meNet Learning Outcomes” in practice and how they may be developed in an ongoing process.